NOTHING GIRL || Remus Lupin

-Forty Nine: This is What it's Called-

"Moon Boy. Moon Boy, wake up."

Remus blinked his eyes open blearily. He was lying on one of the beanbags that were scattered over the main room of Room of Requirement. At some point in the night, one of them had let go of the other's hand while they slept. Helia was standing over him now, offering her hand to help him up. He took it, and groaned in pain. The thought behind staying in the Room of Requirement was nice, the reality involved a crick in his neck, an aching back, and shots of his pain through his shoulder and side, where he had been hit with the curses.

"Morning." He greeted, his voice creaky from lack of use.

"Hey, Moon Boy." Helia said. Remus looked up, something in her eyes told him that she was laughing at him.

"What?"

"It's the last day." Helia watched understanding slowly dawn on his face, followed by a mounting panic, "And I'm betting you haven't packed your bags yet."

Remus stared at her for a moment, "Shit." He ran a hand through his hair, alternating between shooting apologetic looks at Helia and glancing at the door.

"Well, Moon Boy," she was definitely laughing at him now, "What are you waiting around for?" She gestured to the door with an exaggerated bow that barely concealed her grin, "Speed of a wolf!"

"I hate you." Remus muttered, feeling his cheeks warm as he did indeed have to run out of the room, still in his pyjamas, and charge down the halls until he made it to Gryffindor Tower.

James and Sirius were waiting for him in the common room, Peter bumbling around by the fire, presumably rectifying some mistake that James had made in it's construction.

"We were wondering where you disappeared to last night," James grinned, looking the opposite of concerned.

"You know, with Blacksmith." Sirius wiggled his eyebrows.

Remus was starting to regret waking up this morning at all. He would have stayed at Hogwarts all holidays, if only to avoid the evil gleam that all of his friend's eyes had seemed to be been blessed with that day.

"It's not like that." He groaned as they followed him mercilessly up to the dormitory. He couldn't count the amounts of times he'd had to say those same four words over the last eleven months.

"Sure it's not." James answered flippantly. He and Sirius each latched themselves to opposite sides of the door frame, neither offering to help as Remus flew around, stuffing things into his trunk with no regard for folding or whether the item in question actually belonged to him.

He pulled on a pair of jeans and a faded grey hoodie, deciding that his Batman pyjama top would be well camouflaged beneath his jacket.

"You know Prongs," he heard Sirius say as Remus hopped about, pulling a shoe on, "I've been thinking a lot recently,"

"Careful there. Your head might explode." Remus muttered vengefully.

The boys ignored him.

"What is it, Padfoot?" James said, fake excitement building in his voice.

"Now that our Moony is all grown up, with a girlfriend and everything-"

"I don't have a girlfriend!" Remus interrupted hurriedly, going red in the face. Again, Sirius and James payed him no heed, pretending that he wasn't even in the room.

"-It's only right that we should respect boundaries, and give the lovebirds some space." Sirius finished.

"I absolutely agree, Padfoot." James added solemnly.